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Millennials prefer credit over cash

3:36 a.m. MDT September 2, 2014

American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa credit cards are displayed for a photograph in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, May 18, 2010. Credit-card firms caught off-guard by U.S. Senate passage of curbs on debit fees are facing what one executive sees as a "volcanic" eruption of legislation, including possible limits on interest rates. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images(Photo: Bloomberg Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"To me it indicates that we are only going to see fewer and fewer people use cash for these purchases going forward," Schulz said. "And that has some interesting implications for credit card issuers and banks and for just the economy as a whole.

Among all cardholders, debit outpaces credit by a two-to-one margin.

The study also found that 77 percent of people over 50 years old old see cash as king. But only 52 percent of those between 18 and 49 prefer cash.

Overall, debit is more popular than credit right now, but that will change because of all the data breaches we've seen.

"I think what those will be is a further movement away from debit into credit because of some of the consumer protections that credit offers up," Schulz said.

Apple will likely make that even easier with the introduction of its new iPhone next week, with a feature that makes the device a mobile wallet.

That increased mobile payment mobility could also mean doors will open faster for virtual currencies like Bitcoin.

"At least 18 to 29 year olds are a little less old fashioned in terms of how they pay for things," said Schulz. "So perhaps that would be a good sign for things like BitCoin. But it's difficult to say."

It's all changing very quickly as the world embraces mobile payments, which could help increase spending in general. That could be good for the economy, in general, assuming that people handle it correctly.